Economics and Technologies

Community-based alternatives for production, consumption, and exchange

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This section features stories of initiatives that help to create an alternative to the dominant neo-liberal or state-dominated economy. These include: localisation of economic activity with democratic control, producer and consumer collectives, local currencies and trade, non-monetised exchage and the gift economy, ecologically sensitive products and processes, macro-economic concepts that respect ecological limits, and approaches to human well-being that go beyond growth, GDP and other narrow measures and indicators.

What we do not feature are superficial and false solutions, such as market and technological fixes for problems that are deeply social and political, or more generally, ‘green growth’ kind of approaches that only tinker around with the existing system.

India at 75: Stepping back from an ecological abyss

The biggest challenge: can ecological sustainability be ensured while generating livelihood security and dignity for more than a billion people?

Artisanal soaps to lavender tea, Chhattisgarh’s gobar revolution is helping rural women

It is now in the process of transforming these gauthans into what it calls rural industrial parks, or centres for cottage industries that the government hopes will create retail products that can “compete with the market”.

How One Man’s Conviction Put Jibhi Valley on the World Tourism Map

Jibhi Valley's first homestay paves the way for eco-tourism showing that it's possible to build sustainable livelihoods without harming nature

Meet the Water Warrior, Laxman Singh, Who Invented a New Method of Water Conservation

"The Chauka system is designed to hold a nine-inch water level, spread over a field. The moisture is reused by draining, to plant forests or to grow crops,”

In Ahmednagar, residents of a slum design their own homes

"... Just asking the communities that they are building for, how is it that they imagine their home to look?”

जिल्हा प्रशासन-ग्रामसभांमध्ये सामंजस्य करार : वनाधारित शाश्वत विकासासाठी होणार मदत (in Marathi)

जैवविविधता संवर्धन व शाश्वत विकास या संकल्पनांना सोबत घेऊन आदिवासींच्या उपजीविकेच्या उन्नतीसाठी गौण वनोपजांवर आधारित हा प्रकल्प हाती घेण्यात आला आहे.

प्रशासन व ग्रामसभा में हुआ करार अनोखी पहल : लेखा-मेंढा ग्रामसभा से ऐतिहासिक शुरुआत (in Hindi)

जैवविविधता संवर्धन व शाश्वत विकास इस संकल्पना से आदिवासियों के उपजीविका के विकास के लिए गौण वनोपज पर आधारित यह प्रकल्प शुरू किया गया है.

Fish on their plate, money in their wallet

The low-cost eco-friendly aquaculture model reboots rural economies and reduces people’s vulnerability.

Gadchiroli Admin’s Initiative for development through gram sabhas

The project will incorporate concepts of bio-diversity conservation and sustainable development with the participation of gram sabhas.